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Leg color in chicks

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Jean:
Mike, it\'s that slightly slate, but mostly clear looking.  I\'ve seen it on the wheatens and blue wheatens alot also.  The have some \"flesh\" color to them.

The first picture is of one of my buff offspring, it has very nice slate legs.  The second is of what some would call grisled.  The third is a comparison of good legs and grisled, remember if you can\'t see a difference it is because it is dusk here and it was hard to get a good picture.

Jean

Guest:
Jean,

The grisled birds have the correct skin color and from what I can see they have some dermal black pigments. There are some genes that inhibit the addition of dermal melanin (dark pigment). Wheaten is one of the genes. If the bird is a male he could be heterozygous for dermal melanin and that can effect the amount of pigment added to the dermis. The answer is yes it can be genetic.

Tim

Mike Gilbert:
Both the birds have slate legs, one is just darker than the other.   If you ever butcher any of the \"grizzled\" birds just peel back the outer layer of leg skin and you will see there is plenty of dermal melanin.   I believe what you have is an epidermis that is thicker or less transluscent, and that is not letting the color show through.   Remember, the color is in the inner layer, not the outer layer.    I sure wouldn\'t  put a priority on culling for that fault alone.   There are plenty of other things to be more concerned about.    Remember, type makes the bird, color the variety.   We sure don\'t hear much discussion about proper breed type - and it is the most important attribute of the breed.

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